Review Ordeal By Hunger: The Story Of The Donner Party Showcased By George R. Stewart Format Printed Matter
by Hunger: George R, Stewart's Story of the Donner Party
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The Donner Party Monument, Truckee, California State Park
I happened to be in Reno, Nevada, in late March,.
It was strictly business, assisting a family with whom I have had a significant bond for many years, Casinos have no allure for me, However historical sites have drawn me to them like a magnet since childhood, I owe that to my grandfather with whom I
would travel during summers on his business trips, As the rest of my family, he was a reader and was particularly fascinated by the Great American West and the westward emigration beginning in, So I first heard the tale of the illfated ReedDonner Party from my grandfather, But I had never visited the site or had the opportunity to do so,
When we touched down in Reno on March, the weather was crystal clear, The skies were a magnificent blue, It was warm in Reno, but in the distance the white on the peaks of the Sierra Nevada was still clearly visible, Donner Pass is only about a forty minute drive from Reno, My traveling companions were game, we had a rental car, and off we went,
As we drove up into the mountains towards Truckee, California, the winds were howling, The rented Nissan reverberated in the stiff cross winds that whistled across the highway through the passes, One last winter storm was forecast, About a foot and a half of snow was forecast for that Saturday evening, Yet, the snow began to fall early, I stubbornly insisted we were so close to our destination that the ground temperatures were too warm for the snow to cause a problem so early in the day.
When we pulled into the parking lot of the Pioneer Emigrant Museum, there were two other cars there, I was in a light weight jacket, no hat, no gloves, Although the air temperature wasI would not have ventured to guess what the wind chill factor was, The photograph of the monument is much clearer than the view I had of it, although I stood directly in front of it, The snow was coming down so heavily that it was hard to keep your eyes open to take in too much of the scenery at once,
After all the obligatory photographs were taken, we ventured into the museum, Several books on the Donner Party were available, but I chose the Stewart volume, The Ranger nodded with approval, "Yes. You picked the right one, I've read them all. After all these years, this is still the best you'll find, Stewart was careful and very thorough, "
I told the Ranger my first read about the Donner Party was, sitelinkMothers by sitelinkVardis Fisher, "Oh, my, we have requests for that all the time, It's been out of print for years, There's a copy of it over at the Truckee Public Library, That's where I read it, Mark my words, though, Stewart's the best, Now, I'm not trying to hurry you folks along, but I wouldn't advise going up to the summit, The chain requirements are on, I'd be headed on down before too long, I've been watching the temperature, It's dropping faster than predicted, You never know what the weather's going to do up in these mountains, "
"Thank's, Ma'am. We'll take your advice and head back, " Shortly after pulling back on IEast to Reno along came a chain of three snow plows, These days in the Sierra Nevada the highway departments are prepared to deal with the storms,
Visiting this isolated location on a cold and windy day with snow visibly accumulating by the minute made an impression on each of us that we most likely would not have experienced had we been there in mid summer in light clothing.
I questioned how rash I had been in pressing on with the weather uncertain, Sometimes, the foolish are just lucky,
Needless to say, the ReedDonner party had no idea what they were facing, Through the years the members of the ReedDonner party have alternately been portrayed as greedy, lazy, stupid, or incompetent, Stewart destroys those inaccuracies through careful research and an understanding of the circumstances that led to the plight of the party,
If there's a villain responsible for the fate of the Donners and those families that traveled with them, it's Lansford Hastings, an entrepreneur who had traveled to and from California on more than one occasion.
He developed the Hasting's CutOff which he vowed to cutmiles from the cross country trip from the Missouri jump off to California, However, Hasting's route crossed the Wasatch Mountains, the Great Salt Lake Desert, which he described as half the actual length of actual passage without drinkable water, Hastings had written a highly touted travel book regarding California and the ease of the journey, George Donner had a copy of it, Additionally, Hastings charged each party,to serve as guide for the journey, His guidance amounted to leaving posted signs and promises to return to retrieve those who had fallen behind on the journey, He didn't.
Stewart proposed that Hastings intent was to build his own constituency of voters in an effort to become the equivalent of the Sam Houston of California, as it was still in the hands of Mexico.
After the Donner disaster, the Hastings cutoff was virtually abandoned, Subsequently, Hastings fell into disrepute after becoming a member of the California Confederacy Conspiracy, He died destitute, but not under the circumstances which his slap dash leadership resulted in to the ReedDonner Party,
The party was comprised of eightyseven members, Only fortyeight members survived. The dead included men, women, and children,
As George Stewart forthrightly noted:
“It is a long road and those who follow it must meet certain risks exhaustion and disease, alkali water and Indian arrows will take a toll.
But the greatest problem is a simple one, and the chief opponent is Time, If August sees them on the Humboldt and September at the Sierra good! Even if they are a month delayed, all may yet go well, But let it come late October, or November, and the snowstorms block the heights, when wagons are light of provisions and oxen lean, then will come a story, ”
It should be noted that although Hastings had traveled his route three times, this expedition was the first trip attempted with wagons, Because of the distinct differences of travel by wagons pulled by oxen, anyone hitting the Sierra Nevada after the passes filled with snow was likely doomed,
As with any group of human beings, those comprising the ReedDonner party responded to their trial as any groupsome with bravery and generosity and some with selfishness to the extent their own self preservation led to the death of comrades.
That some survivors resulted to cannibalism of the dead is without doubt, That two Indian members of a relief party were murdered for food is true, Whether Keseberg, whose first name is lost to us, the last survivor to be rescued by a third relief party murdered Tamsen Donner, the widow of the Party Captain, George Donner will remain a mystery.
Virginia Reed, aged twelve wrote of her experiences to a cousin back east on May,, In part she said,
"I have not rote you half of the truble we have had but I have rote you enuf to let you now tht you down now what truble is but thank god we have all got throw and the onely family that did not eat human flesh we have left everything but i dont cair for that we have got throw with our lives.
. . "
In the New York Times of February,, Dana Goodyear reviewed sitelinkDesperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West, by sitelinkEthan Rarick, Oxford Press.
While noting that Rarick had done his homework, Goodyear reinforced the opinion that Stewart's original work remains the standard for study of one of the most controversial disasters of Western Emigration.
I have to agree. Highly recommended. This is a solid ,Star read. In the longstanding tradition of adoring nonfiction where historical people suffer and die and suffer some more, I loved Ordeal by Hunger, Donner Party tales are a dime a dozen, It is arguably the protodie and suffer nonfiction, A group of pioneers whose tragedy was built for consumption, Even back in, the story quickly traveled back to the East Coast, reproduced in countless local papers, despite the lack of telecommunications or trains, It is a story that must be told,
Author George Stewart's depiction emerges from the many depictions of this story for two reasons, First, it recognizes the need for buildup, We do not begin the book with the Donners racing to cross the Sierra as winter approaches, Rather, we begin way back in Wyoming, at the end of July, as the wealthy pioneers decide to take the Hastings Cutoff through Utah instead of the traditional California Trail Route that edges northward to Oregon before coming back down.
Stewart delivers the exposition in a way that pushes the Donners to fall from the highest heights possible, His second successful tactic is his devotion to consulting the primary sources, Relying heavily on diaries and firsthand accounts, he never lets you forget: this all happened,
As a noted Oregon Trail junkie and connoisseur of the survival tale, I consumed Ordeal by Hunger like insert punny Donner cannibalism joke here, I felt giddy reading it in the way only the best storiesfictional or noncan do, .